


Rose Masquerade

by khilari



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pokemon Fusion, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Kidfic, silly crossover
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-04-18
Packaged: 2019-10-29 01:07:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17798189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/khilari/pseuds/khilari
Summary: Kyouichi is on his pokémon journey, having been joined at the last minute by his best friend and, more surprisingly, his best friend's little sister. Then they meet a girl in a coffin and go from being unable to save her to being co-opted into her quest to save a prince and princess with the guidance of a mysterious roserade.





	1. Prince

Kyouichi is scanning the sky, looking at the approaching storm and wondering whether they should make camp early or pick up the pace and try to make the next town before it hits. He’s about to ask Touga when Nanami’s scream cuts through the air and he turns quickly, only to see his chespin trying to make friends with her. She runs behind Touga while Kyouichi calls, ‘Chess!’

Chess looks up and comes running over, apparently neither upset at being rejected nor sheepish about scaring Nanami, and Kyouichi scoops him up to hold him like a teddy bear in his arms. ‘Don’t bother with her, Chess. She doesn’t like pokémon.’

Touga is patting Nanami’s hair, his other hand holding his own shiny skitty in place on his shoulder, her red fur nearly invisible against his hair.

‘Do you think we should make camp?’ Kyouichi asks.

Touga stops fussing over Nanami and points into the gathering dusk. ‘There’s a light over that way. We could see if they’ll let us stay for the night.’

Chess squirms to be let down and then darts off in the direction Touga pointed. The boys follow more slowly and Nanami lags even behind them, tired from the pace they’ve set today.

‘Why’d you bring her?’ Kyouichi mutters. ‘She’s too young and she’s scared of everything.’

‘She wanted to come,’ Touga says.

‘I’m surprised your parents let her,’ Kyouichi compains. ‘I guess they let you two do everything _else_.’

‘Chess is back,’ Touga says.

Chess runs up to Kyouichi and grabs the edge of his jacket, pressing it against his face as if for comfort. It’s weird, from the happy-go-lucky pokémon, and Kyouichi kneels down. ‘What’s wrong, Chess? Is it danger?’

Chess shakes his head.

‘It’s a funeral,’ says Touga. He’s moved ahead and pushed some branches aside, there’s a look of grave fascination on his face as he stares.

‘Oh.’ Kyouichi picks up Chess and holds him tightly as he walks over to join Touga, able to see the little church below them and the procession around it now. ‘Someone must have died.’ He doesn’t want to think about it, about death. They should move on, pitch camp somewhere since they can’t crash a funeral looking for shelter.

Nanami trudges up and looks past them just as lightning cracks over the church and she shivers. ‘We can’t go _there,_ ’ she says, tugging at Touga’s sleeve. ‘I’m tired, big brother.’

‘She’s right,’ Kyouichi says. ‘Touga?’

‘Hey!’ A man calls from below, making them jump, his glasses blank in the half-light of the storm. Kyouichi thinks they’re in trouble for intruding and Nanami shrinks back behind Touga. ‘Have you seen a girl? A little younger than you?’ he calls. ‘He parents died today and she’s missing.’

‘We haven’t seen anyone,’ Touga answers.

‘Thank you, anyway,’ the man moves on, a pidgey briefly alighting on his shoulder and then taking off again to scan the area.

Touga starts down the hill towards the church.

‘Hey!’ Kyouichi hisses. ‘Where are you going?’

Touga looks back up at him. ‘There are less trees on the other side of the church. Do you want to camp in the woods when it’s like this?’

Another flash of lightning makes Chess whine. Kyouichi wonders whether grass types are especially flammable and then whether it even matters if you get hit by lightning. He follows Touga down, stopping to help Nanami when she struggles to keep her balance.

They’re nearly past the church when Touga looks through one of the windows and goes rigid. A moment later he’s running for the door. Nanami tries to follow and stumbles, slipping in the mud and winding up sobbing with wet earth staining the front of her dress. Kyouichi puts Chess down and helps her up, looking around frantically. He needs to get Touga to come back before they’re caught somewhere they shouldn’t be, but he doesn’t want Nanami with them if they get in trouble and he doesn’t want her in the same room as dead bodies either. He lifts her into one of the recessed windows, where the rain can’t reach her. ‘I’ll get Touga,’ he whispers. ‘Chess, watch over her.’

Chess salutes and stands below the window with his chest puffed out. Kyouichi smiles at him and takes off after Touga.

‘Touga!’ he hisses, running in and seeing Touga pushing at the lid of a coffin. Any attempt at remaining quiet leaves him and he yells, ‘Touga! Stop!’ in a voice that echoes.

‘Don’t open it… please, don’t open it,’ says another voice, small and soft.

It’s the girl. Kyouichi doesn’t know whether to be relieved that Touga didn’t just reveal a corpse or horrified in a whole different way. A flash of lightning reveals her, curled up with a spill of pink hair around her. Kyouichi comes closer, despite himself. ‘What are you doing in here?’ he asks.

‘Are you going to tell them were I am?’ she asks in return.

‘No,’ says Touga. ‘I’m an ally to girls.’

There’s a pause, then, perhaps reassured, she answers Kyouichi’s question. ‘My parents died today. There’s nothing… nothing is eternal. Living on is just making me sick.’

‘There… there are legendary pokémon,’ Kyouichi says. ‘Arceus and Mew, and others, they’re eternal.’ But he can hear his own uncertainty, these are pokémon few people ever see evidence of let alone see. Besides, it doesn’t seem to be enough, in the face of despair. There’s something here he can’t understand, some nightmare that isn’t his, and he’s so, so afraid that one day it might be. Everything can be lost. Everything.

Touga’s face is still, like unruffled water, he’s staring at her but without surprise. ‘I see,’ he says. He stands up.

‘Touga, we can’t let her do this,’ Kyouichi says. A flash of lightning reveals Nanami pressed up against the window, hands and face smushed against it, and Skitty curled in the shadow of one of the other coffins with her ears folded down.

Touga turns away. ‘Then show her something eternal.’

Kyouichi follows him out, feeling lost and hopeless and more useless than he’s ever felt in his life. Touga is lifting Nanami down from the windowsill.

‘What was in there?’ she asks, and Kyouichi realises she could only see the coffin and not the girl in it.

‘Nothing,’ says Touga. ‘I thought I saw something, but there was nothing. You’re tired, aren’t you? Do you want a piggy back?’

Nanami nods and Touga hands his pack to Kyouichi to carry, lifting her onto his back instead.

Setting the tent up in the rain is miserable, and Nanami falls asleep as soon as she can crawl inside it. Kyouichi slumps down on his sleeping bag, too tired to think and too miserable to sleep.

Touga sits down next to him and says, ‘Lend me your pokédex.’

‘Why?’ Kyouichi asks, but he hands it over without waiting for an answer. ‘You should have gone to the professor for one of your own.’

‘I didn’t need a starter since I have Skitty,’ Touga says, scrolling through the pokédex.

Kyouichi leans over his shoulder. ‘What are you looking up, anyway?’

‘Pokémon like Arceus and Mew.’

Kyouichi sighs, leaning on his friend’s shoulder. ‘It’s not like we could catch them, anyway. ‘Specially not by tomorrow.’

* * *

Utena curls up tighter as the lid of her coffin opens again. Why won’t they leave her be? There’s nothing for her out there anymore.

The overpowering smell of roses makes her open her eyes and she sees a bouquet of red roses nudging the coffin lid aside. She reaches out, pushing the lid up with one small hand, and sees a roserade looking in at her, red eyes full of sorrow and concern.

‘Oh,’ she says, softly. It feels less like an intrusion than it would — than it had — from humans. ‘Who… whose are you?’ He’s not a wild pokémon. The gold collar is part of his body, the aqua gem affixed to it is not. He holds out the bouquet that forms his hand and Utena takes it, very gently, afraid of disturbing his petals. The scent of roses gets even stronger, almost dizzying.

He leads her through the church, through a long, dark hall that Utena didn’t think the little church contained. Things are moving on the walls around her and she catches sight of eyes in the darkness. A flash of lightning reveals them to be unowns, sliding across the flat surfaces in strange patterns. The roserade tugs her hand and she turns away from the seething walls to look ahead. There’s a girl about her age, her red dress pooling around her like blood and a tiara in her hair like the spikes of a roselia. In her lap lies a boy a little older, like the ones that had tried to talk to Utena earlier, white haired and dressed in a cape that makes him look like the roserade.

The girl is crying and Utena tries to run forward, only for the vortex to push her back like the repelling end of a magnet. The boy’s eyes open and he throws out one hand, sweating with the effort it costs him, looking past her to the roserade. ‘Prince,’ he whispers. ‘Where are you…?’

‘Where are _you?_ ’ Utena calls. ‘Do you need help?’

Lightning flashes again and the hall is empty. Tears sting Utena’s eyes and when she looks back at the roserade he’s crying too, tears running down his green face and into the blue bouquet he’s clutched over his mouth.

Utena carefully puts a hand on his shoulder. ‘Is your name Prince?’ she asks.

He nods.

‘Did you belong to… to the real prince?’ The boy had looked like a prince, with a princess crying over him.

The roserade nods again.

‘Can I help them?’

He pulls the bouquet away from his face and smiles at her through his tears. Reaching out, he gestures for her to follow him.

It’s dark outside and while the storm is starting to blow itself out it’s still raining. Prince seems to know where he’s going, though, and Utena follows him past the church and away into the hills. He pulls her down behind a rock, once, as a wheeling pidgey appears overhead. Utena guesses it must be searching for her and hopes the brave little bird gets some rest soon.

The tent looming up ahead of her startles her and this time she ducks down behind a rock herself. ‘I can’t talk to people, they’ll just send me back,’ she whispers. Prince shakes his head.

Utena hesitates, but she’s trusting the roserade to guide her, and she’s not going to get far with no food and no supplies. It might be a long way to wherever it is she needs to go, after all. She creeps over to the tent and pulls back the flap. Asleep inside it, with barely enough room for the three of them, are the two boys from earlier and a little girl. That’s good. They didn’t tell anyone back then, they won’t tell anyone now. Utena creeps into the tent, out of the rain.

* * *

Kyouichi wakes to Touga shaking his shoulder and is about to complain when he sees Touga’s finger over his lips and the look of suppressed excitement on his face. He sits up, cautiously, and sees the girl from yesterday, like a miracle, asleep just inside their tent door.

‘Did you go back and get her?’ he whispers.

‘No.’ Touga says, ‘I didn’t do anything.’

The girl stirs and then wakes up, blinking at them as if she’s surprised to find them inside their own tent. ‘Sorry!’ she says. ‘The rain…’

‘It’s fine,’ says Touga. ‘We’re glad you’re here.’

‘But how did you get here?’ Kyouichi asks. Unable to let go of the suspicion he adds, ‘Did Touga bring you?’

‘A roserade brought me,’ she pushes open the tent flap suddenly, looking around. ‘He’s not here!’

‘Is he yours?’ Touga asks.

‘No, he belongs to a prince. I need to save him. The prince, I mean. And the princess, I think she’s his sister and they’re… they’re somewhere strange and he might be dying and they looked so sad.’ She turns to Kyouichi and Touga and says with a firmness of purpose that makes it seem completely reasonable, ‘I need your help.’

And Touga, like a knight accepting a quest, says, ‘Of course.’


	2. Roya

‘Look,’ Kyouichi says, exasperated. ‘We don’t have a choice. You didn’t bring enough supplies in the first place and the tent’s not big enough for four. If we don’t stop in the town we’re going to run out of food.’

‘We haven’t gone that far yet,’ Touga says. ‘People might still be looking for Utena.’

‘Would they?’ Utena asks.

‘They might,’ says Touga, firmly. ‘Kyouchi, you can go and buy supplies, but Utena shouldn’t go into town and Nanami and I can wait with her.’

‘I have to go by myself?’ Kyouichi says.

At the same time Nanami protests, ‘But I want to go shopping! And have a bath!’

‘I’d be fine by myself for a bit, you don’t need to worry about me,’ Utena says. It does make Kyouichi hesitate. He doesn’t want anything to happen to her.

‘See?’ Nanami says, tugging Touga’s sleeve. ‘Come on, big brother. Let’s just go.’

‘Nanami…’ Touga unlatches her from him and thinks. ‘If you really want to go then go with Kyouichi, but be good and don’t draw attention to yourself. Utena, you don’t have any pokémon, you shouldn’t be out here alone.’

‘I’ll stay,’ Nanami says. ‘If you want.’

‘No, it’s all right. You go. Kyouichi, you’ll take care of her?’ Touga says.

‘Of course,’ says Kyouichi. He feels sort of bad, but he doesn’t want to be stuck getting all the supplies alone and even if Nanami’s small she’s more use in a town than waiting out here. He holds out a hand to Nanami unsure whether she’ll take it or run to Touga, but she grabs hold and follows him towards the town.

It’s not until they’re past the first few houses that she says, ‘It’s not _fair_. Why does he like her better than me?’

‘He can’t,’ says Kyouichi. ‘We only met her yesterday.’

Nanami glares at him. ‘ _That’s_ why it’s so unfair.’

* * *

Utena’s not too sorry to be kept away from the town. She doesn’t want to be around people right now, especially when those people aren’t her parents. It bothers her more that she’s kept Touga from going with his sister, although he doesn’t seem upset. Right now he’s dragging a branch around for Skitty to pounce on and Utena’s not sure if they’re training or just playing.

Having pokémon would be nice, she thinks. If she had pokémon of her own, then Touga wouldn’t have had to stay, and how is she going to save the prince and princess if she doesn’t have anything to fight with? Maybe there are pokémon in these woods, hiding out in the thick undergrowth? She picks up a stick and starts pushing ferns aside.

Skitty runs in front of her and bites the stick.

‘I wasn’t playing with you,’ Utena says with a smile.

Touga calls, ‘Stay away from the undergrowth, there might be wild pokémon out here.’

‘I know, I was looking for them,’ Utena tells him.

‘That’s dangerous! What would you do if you found them? You don’t have any pokémon to fight them with.’

Utena rubs the back of her head. ‘Can I borrow Skitty?’

‘If Skitty catches any pokémon, I’m keeping them,’ Touga says, laughing. He looks at the woods again. ‘That’s not a bad idea, though.’

Utena sighs, feeling dejected. Touga’s helping her, so it won’t be so bad for him to have more pokémon, it’s just not the same.

‘Here,’ he says, and taps her shoulder with a pokéball. ‘Maybe if you find one that’s weak, or likes you enough.’

Utena grabs it with both hands and hugs it against her chest. ‘Thank you!’

* * *

‘Nanami!’ Kyouichi calls, looking around frantically. Why is she so hard to keep track of? Maybe he should let Chess out so there’s a second pair of eyes on her, but he’d be more likely to lose the pokémon as well. He finds her plastered against a shop window. ‘Don’t wander off, you’ll get lost,’ he says.

‘I want a pretty necklace,’ Nanami says, pointing.

‘That’s a pokémon accessory, it’s for miltanks,’ Kyouichi says. ‘And we’re not here to buy necklaces.’

‘But I had to leave all mine at home.’ Her eyes well with tears and Kyouichi wonders, not for the first time, why Touga didn’t leave her at home in the luxury she’s so accustomed to.

‘If you come with me and stop wandering off, I’ll let you choose a pretty tent for you and Utena to sleep in,’ he says.

Nanami smiles so suddenly he realises she was waiting to see what he’d bribe her with. ‘Okay!’ she says.

* * *

‘Caught you!’ Utena says, catching Skitty’s tail where it pokes out from under a bush and only remember she’s meant to be looking for wild pokémon rather than playing hide-and-seek with Skitty when she sees the little green head poking out from a bank of ferns.

Touga throws something from behind her and she thinks it’s a pokéball until the kirlia ducks back into cover as the stone lands. She can hear it scampering away.

‘That’s mean!’ she says, turning on Touga.

He shrugs, uncomfortable. ‘I hate psychic types.’

‘It wasn’t doing any harm,’ she snaps.

Skitty rubs up against Touga’s legs and he rubs her ears absentmindedly. ‘They’re nosy,’ he says. ‘They think just because they’re pokémon you should be okay with them rummaging around in your head.’

‘So are you nosy! You pushed my coffin open and wanted to know what was wrong!’ He doesn’t answer and Utena says, ‘I’m gonna find it.’

‘Hey, wait!’ Touga yells after her, but she drops to hands and knees and crawls through the ferns where he can’t see her to follow.

* * *

Kyouichi returns to find Touga sitting on one side of the clearing staring into space while Skitty washes her paw on the other side of the clearing, facing in the other direction.

‘Where’s Utena?’ he asks.

‘She got mad and ran off and Skitty won’t help me find her,’ Touga says.

‘Does that mean I get the new tent to myself?’ Nanami asks.

‘Nanami.’ Touga’s tone is the one he only uses when Nanami’s annoyed him and she wilts at once.

‘I’m sure she’s okay, big brother,’ she says. ‘I was just worried about having a strange girl with us. Please, forgive me?’

Kyouichi shakes his head and puts the parcels down. He’s worried about Utena but more than that, after seeing her in the coffin it feels like a miracle that she’s not dead, like proof of something eternal after all. Losing her brings back the fear of that dark church, of truths revealed in lightning flashes. ‘Did she really run off?’ he asks.

‘Why would I lie about that?’ Touga asks, looking baffled.

‘I dunno,’ Kyouichi mutters. ‘Sorry.’ Of course he wouldn’t, why is Kyouichi suspecting him of it? He’d begged for months for Touga to change his mind and come on this journey with him, so why has something felt so off ever since Touga gave in? It’s like Touga’s distant from him now, on a journey that was meant to bring them closer than ever, like Touga knows something he doesn’t and won’t share.

Kyouchi pulls out Chess’s pokéball and lets him out. ‘Chess, Utena’s run off. Can you find her?’

Chess salutes and turns towards the wood. Skitty heaves a sigh and runs to climb Touga’s shoulder as he and Saionji follow.

* * *

Utena is panting slightly and starting to realise how far she’s come. The kirlia always seems to be one step ahead of her, sometimes disappearing right as she reaches it.

‘Hey!’ she calls. ‘I just wanted to-to check you’re okay. And say - AAAAAH!’

Utena’s world is loose earth and roots and the sensation of nothing under her feet and then she hits the bottom of the pit with a thump. Above her, gazing through the ferns that had covered the hole, is the kirlia. It looks angry, and Utena realises that even small pokémon are a lot to face alone. She gulps and clutches the pokéball tightly. She can at least try throwing it! She has to go save a prince and princess, she’s not going to just give up!

The scent of roses drifts around them and the kirlia’s eyes go wide, entranced, as it forgets Utena to gaze at something behind her. Utena turns and sees Prince there, one of his bouquets wafting the scented air. Then he spins, petals filling the air around him, slicing at the kirlia. It falls and Utena throws the pokéball almost on reflex. The pokéball’s back in her hand and she’s blinking at it in confusion when Prince calls to her and extends a hand downward. He can’t reach her from there, and Utena doesn’t want to tug on his floral hands anyway, so she scrambles out by herself.

‘Thank you, Prince. You really saved me,’ she says.

He smiles up at her, and then a sound from the woods makes her turn.

* * *

Kyouichi thinks he saw something beside Utena for a moment as they entered the clearing, but then whatever it is is gone, and it’s just a small, grubby girl clutching a pokéball.

‘Did you catch something?’ Touga asks.

‘I caught the kirlia,’ she says. She glares at him. ‘It was mad at me.’

‘That seems unfair,’ Touga says, lightly. ‘You didn’t do anything.’

‘What kirlia?’ Kyouichi asks.

‘Touga threw a rock at it,’ Utena says. ‘I wanted to see if it was okay, or apologise, or something.’

‘A rock? Why didn’t you have Skitty fight it?’ Kyouichi asks.

‘I didn’t want to fight it, I just wanted it to go away,’ Touga says. ‘I suppose you’re going to keep it now.’

‘Of course I am!’ says Utena. She clutches the pokéball defensively.

‘You can’t just decide that,’ Nanami shrills. ‘You’re travelling with my brother so he’s in charge.’

‘You’re all travelling with me,’ Kyouichi mutters, not expecting it to matter to anyone. But it was his journey first.

‘I’m keeping it anyway,’ says Utena. She turns as if to march off, then stops. ‘Which way is camp?’

* * *

To Utena’s relief Kyouichi bought potions and he gives her one to heal up the kirlia. The little pokémon looks around the camp with eager interest and then wilts fast. ‘Kir. Kirlia?’ it says, tugging Utena’s sleeve. It spins in imitation of Prince, as balletic as he was. ‘Kirlia?’

‘Oh, Prince isn’t really mine. He’s helping me… I’m helping him,’ Utena says. ‘We’re on a Quest.’

‘Kirlia!’ The pokémon seems excited at this. Kyouichi, meanwhile, pulls out his pokédex.

‘ _Kirlia. The emotion pokémon. The cheerful spirit of its Trainer gives it energy for its psychokinetic power. It spins and dances when happy._ ’

‘Oh.’ Utena looks away, fidgeting with her dress. ‘I’m not very happy right now. Sorry. I guess you’d be better off with someone else.’

‘Kir.’ The pokémon says, patting her arm, its eyes huge and sympathetic.

‘Here,’ Kyouichi says, holding out his pokédex to her. His eyes are sympathetic too and she manages to smile at him. ‘This is what a kirlia can evolve into.’

‘Kir! Kir!’ It points to the gallade picture excitedly and makes a spinning motion with one of its arms.

Utena laughs. ‘I guess it is like Prince, a bit.’ It’s green and white with a similarly gallant air, and almost a mask. ‘Like a prince, anyway. Is that what you want to be?’

Kirlia nods enthusiastically.

‘Are you a boy?’ Kyouichi asks.

The kirlia shakes its — her — head.

‘Then you can’t,’ he says. ‘Girls can only be Gardevoir.’

‘I don’t see why,’ says Utena, feeling suddenly protective. She and her pokémon should both be able to follow their dreams. ‘She can be whatever she wants!’

‘No she can’t, it’s biology. Even if you give her a Dawn Stone it’s not gonna work,’ Kyouichi argues. Utena just glares at him, the kirlia doing the same from her arms. ‘Fine!’ he says, throwing the pokédex down and then thinking better of it and putting it in his pocket. ‘But it’s not gonna work!’

Utena turns back to the kirlia as he storms off. ‘You need a name,’ she says. ‘How about Roya? It’s short for “royal”, like a prince.’

Roya hugs her, so Utena figures that’s okay.


	3. Fletchling

Utena wakes up yawning and crawls out of the tent before letting Roya out of her pokéball. Nanami won’t share a tent with a pokémon, so Roya has to go inside it at night, but Utena always lets her out first thing. Kyouichi and Chess are already up and cooking omelettes together.

‘That smells good,’ she tells them, stretching.

Kyouichi smiles at her. ‘Do you want the first one, since you’re up?’

‘Yes, please.’ She sits down by the fire, but turns to look out at the woods around the camp. ‘Did…?’

‘Not yet,’ Kyouchi says. ‘I think he waits until you’re awake.’

‘Kir!’ says Roya, and Utena follows the direction of her pointing arm to see Prince standing a little distance away. He catches her eye and points his hand in a direction that will take them past a little stand of silver birches. Then he’s gone.

‘He could be a bit more useful,’ Kyouichi says.

‘The prince and princess probably need him too,’ says Utena.

* * *

They dawdle as they go through the woods, pokémon ranging around looking for wild ones to fight. Chess scares up a caterpie at one point, but Kyouichi is too surprised to give him orders in time and Chess has it knocked out before he’s grabbed a pokéball. Good training, but no new pokémon. He hugs Chess anyway, because it’s more his fault than the chespin’s.

The sound of squawking doesn’t register with him until Touga’s head goes up, and then he realises it’s mixed with a wet cracking sound. Nanami pulls a face as if the sound is disgusting in itself, but Utena runs to look at what it is even before the boys do. In shorts and a hoodie she’s less the miracle girl and more a scrappy little thing that Kyouichi is finding himself fond of. He speeds up and the two of them enter the clearing together.

There’s a fletchling perched on a shelmet almost as big as it, beak tugging relentlessly at a break in tightly shut shell. Roya puts a hand to her head and a moment later the fletchling sways, confused, its next peck hitting the ground rather than its target.

‘Chess, grab the shelmet!’ Kyouichi calls and sighs in relief as Chess’s vinewhip pulls it to safety. There’s a whole chunk of the shelmet’s visor shell hanging loose, two cracks almost meeting, while a smaller chunk is already missing. Kyouichi’s scrambling in his pack for a potion, although he doesn’t think that’s going to fix this kind of damage, when something stabs between his shoulder blades. He twists, trying to dislodge the fletchling from his back, but its feet are so tangled in his shirt it doesn’t seem to be able to let go. He gets his arm up, trying to ward it away from his face.

Touga’s voice rings out. ‘Kyouichi, duck. Skitty, tackle.’

Kyouichi flings himself down, curling his arms around his head, and Skitty goes over him with a growl. She bears the fletchling to the ground, its claws tearing through his shirt.

‘Fake out!’ Touga calls.

Skitty opens her mouth, bearing down on the fletchling, and, when it flinches back, swats it with her paw instead. A pokéball sails over her and dissolves the fletchling into red light. They all hold their breath while the pokéball rocks and the light finally goes out.

‘Kyouichi, are you all right?’ Touga asks, ignoring the pokéball to drop down and push Kyouichi’s hair away from the gash between his shoulders.

‘Don’t know.’ Kyouichi squeezes his eyes shut tight and tells himself he’s a trainer on a pokémon journey and he’s not going to cry.

‘You’re fine,’ Touga says, reaching over for the pack. ‘Just let me clean it up.’

Kyouichi feels a small hand touch his shoulder as Utena checks for herself he’s not too badly hurt and then she sits down in front of him and pulls the shelmet into her lap.

‘You’re going to be okay,’ she says, patting the side of the shell that isn’t damaged, and then reaches for a potion. The shelmet only makes an uncomfortable sound when she sprays it on, though.

Touga finishes bandaging Kyouichi and looks up. ‘Where’s Nanami?’ he says.

* * *

Nanami turns out to be waiting for them back on the path and Utena, arriving with her arms full of an injured shelmet, can’t help but feel annoyed with her. It’s not exactly Nanami’s fault she’s useless, but she’s really, really useless, and she’s not that much younger than Utena.

Touga seems to share her feelings because he checks Nanami isn’t hurt and then pats her on the head distractedly before turning to Kyouichi. ‘We’re not near a town, are we?’ he asks.

Kyouichi looks up from his pokédex. ‘Not even if we walked all night. We’re in the middle of nowhere here.’

‘I don’t want to walk all night, I’m tired already,’ Nanami whines.

‘Shut up!’ Utena snaps. ‘We’ve got a hurt pokémon, if we don’t get it to a pokécentre…’

She looks at Touga, but it’s Kyouichi who says, ‘If we make camp near a river we might be able to to keep it from dryng out, even with a hole in its shell.’

The shelmet’s visor lifts weakly and a pink and green face peers up at Utena. Utena touches it gently between the eyes, the skin feeling dry and spongy. ‘It’s okay,’ she says, voice wobbling slightly. ‘I’m going to take care of you now.’

A pokéball flies over her shoulder and hits the shelmet, causing it to squeak and slam its visor closed, making the hanging piece of shell wobble alarmingly. She glares at Touga.

‘Sorry,’ he says. ‘It really would be better off in a pokéball, though, and I thought if I caught it off guard it might work. We can’t exactly risk weakening it.’

‘Oh. Yeah, that was worth a try,’ she says. ‘It’s okay,’ she adds softly to the shelmet. ‘He was trying to help.’

The visor opens again, just a little.

* * *

Making camp waits until they’ve given the shelmet a ridiculous amount of water to drink, wrapped it in Kyouichi’s spare t-shirt, and put it in a little hollow of the river bank where the t-shirt will continue to soak up water but not drown it. A light drizzle starts to fall, meaning that the effort to reach the river quickly was probably wasted, but it’s a relief to Kyouichi all the same.

‘Can we put the tents up, now?’ Nanami whines. Skitty might be the luckiest of them, since Touga’s put her in her pokéball to rest she’s already out of the rain.

Kyouichi and Utena do most of the work of putting the tents up. It’s not that Touga usually slacks off, but with the drizzle and nearby river getting the tents up involves getting muddy and… Kiryuus do not, apparently, get muddy if they can help it.

Touga goes to disappear into the larger tent as soon as it’s up and holds up a hand when Nanami tries to follow. ‘I’m going to introduce myself to my fletchling,’ he says. ‘You won’t like it.’

‘But, big brother,’ she says, tears standing in her eyes. ‘I want to be with you. I was scared earlier.’

‘Why?’ he asks. ‘You weren’t even there.’

‘You might have got hurt!’

Kyouichi huffs because apparently she didn’t notice or doesn’t care that _he_ was hurt. He stands up, intending to go inside the girls’ tent to get out of the rain while Touga and Nanami sort out whatever her problem is.

‘I’m fine, and I need to check on my pokémon,’ Touga says.

‘All you care about is pokémon,’ Nanami yells, voice going shrill. ‘I wish I’d never given you Skitty.’ She grabs at his belt, tugging off Skitty’s pokéball, which grows to full size in her hand. Touga tries to catch her wrist and she switches the pokéball to the other hand, twisting away from him and throwing it, gleaming red against the grey sky before it splashes into the river.

 _It will float,_ Kyouchi thinks, dazedly. _We’ll have to follow the river down, see where it washes up. The current’s pretty fast._

Touga dashes past him and arcs into the river in a swan dive, hair flashing as red as the pokéball. He comes up with hair plastered across his mouth, expression triumphant as he grabs the pokéball in one hand, clutching it against his chest. He can’t swim with one hand occupied, though. Nanami and Utena both scream and all Kyouichi can think is that he’s watching his best friend drown.

Then Chess, his wonderful, perfect, chespin, throws out his vines. Touga grabs them, gasping as he pulls his head back up above water, and Kyouchi grabs Chess as the chespin is pulled off his feet. A moment later Utena, Nanami, and Roya have all piled on, holding onto Chess or Kyouchi with all their strength.

Touga is dragged up the riverbank wet, muddy and pale, hair streaming around his face. He looks like a ghost from a horror movie. Nanami grabs at him, babbling frantic apologies and Kyouichi finds himself yelling, ‘Pokéballs _float_ , you idiot! You could have _died!_ ’ while swiping helplessly at the tears running down his cheeks.

* * *

Utena’s never been so scared in her life. Not even when her parents died, because then she didn’t realise what was happening until it was already over. Now she wonders if this is how it felt for Touga and Kyouichi to find her in a coffin and have her announce her intention of dying. Touga’s expression suggests he’s responding to his own near death the way he did to hers, that same calm distance in his eyes as he rubs Nanami’s back, soothing her without responding to her apologies.

Kyouichi hovers, biting his lip, and then blurts out, ‘You’ve got to get into dry clothes.’

Touga looks up from Nanami as if surprised to find him there and then says, ‘Yes, of course,’ and stands up.

Nanami looks forlorn as he and Touga vanish into their tent, arms wrapped around her own chest, and Utena, despite herself, feels sorry for her.

‘Um,’ she says. ‘I don’t really get why you did that, but… I’m sure Touga understands…’

Nanami turns on her, going from forlorn to furious in an instant. ‘Shut up!’ she says. ‘You don’t understand anything. It’s your fault too!’

‘How is it my fault you just threw your brother’s pokémon in a river?’ Utena says.

‘He’s always paying attention to you! You just came out of _nowhere_ and now he thinks about you all the time. I won’t let you get between us! I won’t let him like you better than me!’

‘Um.’ Nanami’s really getting very close, but then Roya appears beside Utena making Nanami take a step back warily, and Utena no longer feels like she’s about to be backed into the river. ‘I don’t have a brother, so I guess I don’t understand, but I’m sure that’s not true. Touga’s always taking care of you.’

‘That’s not enough!’ Nanami turns away, slumping into herself. ‘It’s not enough.’

‘I. Um. I’m sure we’ll all feel better once we eat?’ Utena tries, helplessly. ‘How about we make dinner tonight?’

Nanami looks at her contemptuously for a moment and then her stomach rumbles and she reconsiders. ‘Okay,’ she says.

* * *

Even after dinner Kyouichi’s not sure whether he’s glad the girls cooked it or not. It’s clear they have very little idea of the proportions of things that should go into soup, but he was exhausted enough to just eat it rather than try to cook something else. Especially with Nanami looking so hopeful, as if making dinner might help her be forgiven.

He falls asleep almost as soon as he lies down, but something wakes him up still feeling like his insides are stuffed with lead. He can’t have been asleep more than a few hours, and he’s just about to roll over and try to sleep again when he realises what woke him was a stifled sob from outside. Crawling out into a night that’s now dry and brightly moonlit he’s expecting to find Nanami, but it’s Touga sitting by the remains of the fire with Skitty’s pokéball clutched to his chest.

‘Touga,’ he says, softly. Touga looks up and Kyouichi can see the teartracks before he puts his face back down against his knees and vanishes behind his hair. Kyouichi almost tiptoes across the clearing to sit down beside him. ‘You okay?’ he asks.

Touga shakes his head slightly. ‘I won’t lose her,’ he says.

‘Yeah.’ Kyouichi leans slightly against Touga, unsure what else to do. He can’t remember the last time he saw Touga cry. ‘I’m glad you got her back okay.’

‘I wasn’t expecting… I didn’t think Nanami would…’ Touga trails off.

‘Have you thought about sending her home?’ Kyouichi asks. Touga stiffens against him, but he ploughs on. ‘She’s upset and scared all the time, that’s why she’s being so much trouble, probably. She doesn’t like camping, or pokémon, and you can’t take care of her always.’

Touga laughs, very softly, bitterly, a sound that’s too adult and somehow more upsetting than the tears. ‘I have to,’ he says.

‘Because she’s your sister?’

‘Because I’m not really on a pokémon journey,’ Touga says, so quietly Kyouichi has to lean in even further to hear. ‘I’m running away from home. It’s why I had to bring Nanami, if I left her behind they might hurt her.’

Kyouichi’s hand finds Touga’s and clutches it. ‘Did they hurt you?’

Touga looks away and nods slightly.

Is this what’s been between them, what Touga’s been shutting him out from? It makes sense, except that it doesn’t. They’re _friends_. He’d do anything for Touga, help him with anything. ‘Why didn’t you say?’

‘You always thought I knew what I was doing. I wanted you to keep believing that.’ Touga sniffs. ‘I don’t care about badges or being a pokémon master, I just want a powerful enough team they can’t ever make me go back.’

‘We’d fight too,’ Kyouichi says. ‘Me and Chess. We wouldn’t… you wouldn’t be alone.’

Touga’s hand finally curls around his. ‘Don’t tell Nanami,’ he says. ‘She still thinks our parents love her.’

‘It’s okay,’ says Kyouichi. ‘I won’t tell anyone. I promise.’


End file.
